Today in TV History: ‘ Will & Grace’ Took Us Inside the High-Stakes World of Gay Spelling Bees

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: October 30, 2003

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Will & Grace, “A-Story, Bee-Story” (Season 6, Episode 5)

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: It’s been said so often that it’s become a cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true: the show is called Will & Grace, but the real appeal if Jack & Karen. Even for me, a rampant Grace apologist who honestly thinks Debra Messing did some brilliant work on that show, there are simply too many hilarious Jack and Karen scenes that immediately spring to mind to deny the fact that they were the best, full stop.

By the time the sixth season rolled around, Will & Grace had already downshifted into its second phase. The entire series can be divided pretty much in half, with the mid-point coming when Grace meets Leo (Harry Connick Jr.). Leo didn’t ruin the show exactly (though I never liked him, not Connick’s disengaged performance, and the show’s insistence that he keep recurring in Grace’s life got incredibly tedious), but he showed up right when the series started to devolve into bitter Will/Grace fights and an arms race of celebrity cameos. In the midst of all that, there were oases like “A-Story, Bee-Story,” which just let Jack and Karen loose on a plot that was pure comic relief. In this case, Jack signed up for a spelling bee. Sorry, a gay spelling bee. You know, where the words are gay.

NOTE: Once again, I feel the need to mention that Will & Grace‘s streaming presence, or lack thereof, is completely unacceptable and a true American tragedy. I don’t know if the hangup is on NBC’s end or Warner Bros. — though it’s probably Warner Bros.; they have “bros” right there in the name! — but whatever the snag is, can some junior executive take it upon his- or herself to FIX IT already? This is one of the signature network comedies of the aughts and there is no way to stream episodes EVEN FOR PURCHASE.

Anyway, if I could embed the clip of Jack puzzling out a way to spell maitre d’, with Karen lobbing increasingly obvious hints at him from the sideline, you’d be privy to one of the funniest scenes in the history of the series, with Megan Mullally once again delivering Emmy-worthy work and drag-worthy grandness of gesture.

[Will & Grace is not available to stream anywhere. As you may have heard.]

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.